I think that the topic has moved away from the original impetus somewhat :rolleyes:.

randman.. I like your self portrait (the avatar).. did you do yourself?

That is not me. It is a self-portrait by John Lennon (one of many he did). I love his music and he was a major influence on me in many ways. :)

euh.. well to me it looked like you.. if you dont find in that any offense... (I think you dont since he is in a way an idole of yours..) :)

and btw, I love his music too though I dont think he had such an influence on my life..

From what I've heard, they don't. A lot of languages have overlapping words, but don't necessarily come from the same root language. The words for "balcony" are very similar in English [Latin] and Bangla [Sanskrit] (verandah, barindar), and most languages use incredibly similar words for 2 (deux, dui, do, etc.). Then again, I could be the one who's misinformed.

/me hits the books to read up more on the topic.

Rest easy. I'm not that easily offended. ;) Actually I'm kind of flattered you think I look like him. :)

I acquiesce... partially. Note the use of the term "North Germanic"... apparently, Finno-Ugric only applies to the modern Scandanavian/Northern European languages.

Yes, it's true that German and English had a common ancestor... but I was only looking as far back as the classical period, whereas this site goes all the way back to the Neolithic periodto place their ancestor as a unyet defined "Indo-European" common ancestor. Nobody has discovered the nature of this language yet, as it appears to be unwritten. So, if you want to go back far enough, you could say that German and English have a common ancestor. But I think my original statement that calling English "Germanic" is stretching it a bit. Just a bit, but it's still a stretch ;)

thx for the very informative link RM..
may I ask about your interest in this field.. I mean is it a general knowledge of yours or you've majored into it?

I've always been interested in etymology, but never really followed through on it. I still read up on it when I get a chance. So I guess you could call it a hobby.

Ok. :) I won't try to argue with that site. (though I would like to me=ntion that languages borrow from each other as they develop. They don't simply branch off.)

one more thing: why can black people have BET (black entertainment television) but if a white person did this it would be considered racist?

-peace-